Summary

What would you have to do to no longer feel hunger? What would you have to do to abate your mother’s
anger and to be loved by her? What would you do have a taste of happiness? These are just some
questions that twelve-year-old Nenita ponders on, as the readers are introduced to her in the beginning
of the story. Nenita, the eldest among her five siblings, and with another on the way, tasks herself to
provide for her family by becoming a “working girl”. Also, with her father losing his job and being
unable to find a new one, she is much more pressured to be able to find a way to lay food on their
table, not only to feed her family but to also gain her mother’s love. So strong is Nenita’s desire that
she decides to stop going to school on its last month and instead becomes a maid in the household of
the Valenzuela’s. As she begins to be able to provide for her family, and by taking the title of
“breadwinner”, changes began to happen in their family. Nining, as she is called when adored or loved,
taking on the matriarchal role, begins to have a better understanding for her mother, for the
unwavering anger which stems from her inability to provide. Not everything though is as sweet as
honey as tragic events occur in Nenita’s barrio which as well causes unexpected but profound changes
that which as well mirrors the changes within Nenita. As the story comes to an end, after the summer
heat was erased by the monsoon, after Agualita was laid into a shoebox, and after Nenita asked for
forgiveness, Nenita’s fate took on another change, one that will take her farther from her home than
she would expect. As all these events occur in her twelfth summer, Nenita provides the readers a taste
of her barrio, its people, and their own culture through her mature sense of perception and knowledge
of food.

Character
Nenita’s childhood is a reflection of many social issues, of events that may happen in a person’s life
and of the love of food that many can relate to. In Nenita’s life, the reader’s see the inevitable power of
change, of its ability to create, transform and even destroy. It is also a reflection of the sad reality of
poverty and of hunger, of what it can drive people to do. Lastly, it is a depiction of a girl, of a child,
hungry for good food, for maternal love, for her happiness.
For a twelve-year-old, Nenita has a sense of maturity beyond her age. Despite being a child, with
simple desires as eating a Turon, she takes upon the role of a provider for her impoverished family. She
does this so by finding ways of having not just food, but good food. Nenita would concoct dishes by
transforming ordinary delicacies, like the unwanted cod, into something unexpected, with the use of a
Kalamansi and a Hibiscus. Here the readers see as well Nenita’s love and knowledge of food, by her
use of something as she said “you can’t eat, but that feed you anyway”. To Nenita cooking good food,
will be good food for her family to eat, which equals to her being good, for her to be happy.
Nenita though realizes that helping out at home is not enough, thus her decision to leave school to
become a working girl. This decision creates a domino of changes in her and her family’s life. Not only
does Nenita become a maid to the Valenzuela’s, which brings opportune to her family, having food on
their table as a result, Nenita becomes more than jus the eldest, she becomes the “breadwinner”. This
scenario is not new, since many children these days leave school and become child workers, who
endure hardwork in exchange for money, money that at times is still not enough to feed all the hungry
bellies. Also the Philippines is known for domestic helpers who leave their own homes and families to
serve other homes and families, one that Nenita jokes in the epilogue as becoming the first exported
one.
Nenita’s summer is her own metamorphosis, of her growing up, one that is full of changes of different
proportions. Change first occurs in the dynamic in their household, due to Nenita’s work and her
capability to provide, unlike her mother and her father. Change occurs as Nenita with her already
mature perception, gets a better view and understanding of the adults in her barrio, most specifically
her mother. Being a stay-in maid, she is given time to see her mother from a different perspective,
allowing her to see that her mother’s anger, despite being thrown to her, her siblings and father, is
really towards herself, as a mother who is unable to do anything, who is unable to provide. Change as
well occurs in Nenita as she, driven by blind anger, stood up against her mother’s anger, though the
price to be paid for the action is one that was too high. Despite this, the mother and daughter were
able to reconcile, to ask for, give and receive forgiveness.
Theme: Food
This text should come with a warning “May cause hunger” or “Eat while reading”, because there seems
to be no dish discussed in this book that will leave you not wanting to taste it. The purpose of the
dishes though is to not just leave the reader’s desiring to have a taste of those seaweeds, halo-halo,
palitaw or leche flans, it serves a much more important role than that. The dishes in the text gives the
readers a better understanding of characters, events and realtionships by letting us have a taste of
each.
The food in the story serves as metaphors or bridges between characters. Just like the Turon of Nana
Dora, which was called happiness to Nenita as she listens to it boil in the coconut oil and as its aroma
reaches her nose. The Turon as well became a bridge between Nenita to Nana Dora, not only as a form
of payment for letting Nenita roll, but as a bridge of friendship of finding someone to whom you could
share your stories and secrets to. Another dish was the Ox Tongue being a metaphor for her father,
Gable’s, devil eaten tongue, since he would often say “The devil ate my words” when he would forget
or rather stay quiet when he would have a fight with Marina, her mother. The Coconut Chicken, as well
became the bridge that brought VV and Nenita together and eventually was the dish that landed her
the job of being the Valenzuelas’ maid.
Food plays a big role in Nenita’s life, in her search for happiness and her desire for her mother’s love.
Nenita works to bring home food, to appease her mother’s anger. Nenita cooks good food, so that in
her mother’s eyes she will be good. Despite this though, nothing ever seems to be enough. Thus
Nenita’s hunger grows. Despite this though, none seems to work as her mother glares at her each time
she brings home food, declaring she does not beg for food or that Nenita is a thief. In the end of the
story though it is also Nenita’s act of bringing food to her ill mother that lead to their reconciliation.
Food is Nenita’s language as she brings forth her words, message and desires through each meal she
concocts.

Personal Reflection
This food novel by MerlindaBobis really opened my mind when it comes to food and its relation to our
feelings. The sweetness of turon, the bitterness of ampalaya, the sourness of sinigang and the
spicyness of bicol express really imitates what Nenita feels for her loved ones. My personal reflection
when it comes to food really comes from my childhood when my lolo usually cooks bagnet, tokwa and
my favorite biko every sunday morning and it reflects how my lolo was raised. Every crop in our garden
can be combined and turn into a wonderful piece of food. Our sunday morning gave meaning through
family and food by gathering in the dining table at least once a week. This reflects the story of Banana
Heart Summer where family is important to go with food. Art comes in different forms, shape, color and
sizes. I see food as art when it comes to the meaning of the different ingredients when you put it in a
dish. It encompasses our tongue to different wonders of the world as well as feel like traveling in
different location through food. Our contry is rich in different kinds delicacies for example, the rice can
be cooked in different ways: biko, puto, suman, arrozcaldo, champorado etc. This reflects that our food
culture can vary of what we have and making the most out of our resources.
I really want to be a chef someday because is see beauty in food and also the excitement of giving
food to people and serve them dishes that I really love back from my childhood makes my future job
worth all the sacrifices that I've made. Cooking is like painting where you have a canvass and you have
to draw out different colors to make a masterpiece. No color or in my case “food” shall be wasted
because you can turn everything into a scrumptious food. Some say that cooking is a hobby and cannot
be considered as a job. My parents told me that because it is better to have a good education than to
be a cooked but in my point of view, cooking is what I love and what I will do for the rest of my life
even though there is no money in being a food lover and a chef. It is important from where you come
from and go back to that same moment when you first taste that specific food and recreate it based on
what you remember. In other words, food is love and it won't be simply seen as sweet, salty, sour,
bitter but it should be seen as a work of art.